Are you a member of any online cliques?

Bobson Dugnutt

I was talking to a nephew of mine over the weekend. Nice lad, but a complete dork. He was telling me that him and his friends are part of some elite groups of gamers who play as a squad in some shooting game. It's almost impossible become a member of this group, they scout other players to see if they might make the grade, they have rules about conduct etc, and it generally seemed very cliquey. Neckbeard elitism tbh.

Are you a member of any online clique? I was a member of some private forums here back around 2010-2014. They were good crack, but there was a lot of idle gossip and general bitchiness that I didn't like. Apart from that I'm in the usual whatsapp groups with old college friends, drinking buddies, golf partners, industry chat and so on. Wouldn't see myself as part of any "clan" or "tribe" though.

Strumms

No, the only online group or anything like that I frequent is here.

Two WhatsApp groups. One family one other social one to do with a fitness gig.

going back 15-20 years ago I posted on the hotpress forum, plus another music based one that was excellent to start with some really nice, fun and generous people recommending / sending music, recommending gigs etc…but it’s a ghost town these days got taken over by a slightly yappy set of people and it’s purpose drifted… no topic by the end was free from people randomly going off topic and just being complete pests.

banie01

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121879208#Comment_121879208

I'm a member of an AVgeek group chat on twitter, and that's slowly migrating to Blue sky. I'm the youngest there by 25yrs or so. A couple of other group chats and perhaps the deadest discord server ever.

**EDIT** Now that I think a little more on it? I suppose the watch sub-forum here on boards would count too. Not really cliquey, more a support group for men who spend money on obsolete timekeeping 🤣

Bob Marley Park

Try stay away from that kind of thing.

I left Twitter because it's algorithm was foisting lots of drivel from the left and the right, mostly US based. I had tried to stay out of that tripe but I got tired of muting accounts.

gormdubhgorm

Every thread on boards.ie where a poster is a regular poster along with other regular posters, is an "online clique" where all the views are predominately similar, and the moderator predominately agrees with said views/allows them.

Grayson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121879615#Comment_121879615

Especially some culture wars stuff where it ends up being the same people posting about and then arguing about the same topic. I'm not going to mention a topic to try and keep this thread from veering off but imagine it's people who think people who are called Joe are bad.

And if you find someone like them on twitter, all they do is tweet and retweet about it. Their bios are just about that subject. It's a weird obsession. It's not even an interest, it's an obsession. If it was an interest there might be an occasional funny tweet of a cat, but no, every single tweet, retweet and reply is about the single subject of people called Joe.

And they probably don't even know anyone called Joe or have ever met someone called Joe.

Grayson

On a separate note, I've been parts of communities for niche games. Some was forums, some was IRC back in the day.

Now I just play more mainstream games. I am in a couple of whatsapp groups with guys I play with that I've never met in real life. We just use it to coordinate when we'll be online. I don't know if this counts as a clique.

witchgirl26

I was about 16 years ago.....it was part of a message board site (not this one). Just found I'd more in common with some particular users. And then we became actual friends offline & are still friends to this day.

I'm in some communities for my hobbies online but I wouldn't classify them as cliques because they are open to anyone who enjoys that hobby.

StevenToast

The OP has many online cliques with himself....the anti middle aged white men brigade....

Baba Yaga

i wouldnt be a member of any clique that would have me as a member...

Sgt Hartman

I was part of some gaming cliques back in the day for Elder Scrolls Morrowind and Dark Souls. Real nerdy stuff. I designed some Morrowind mods and posted them online to download and I posted my ideas for new areas and boss characters in the Dark Souls clique. Nowadays I’m a family man so I haven’t much time for it anymore 🥸

dxhound2005

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121879976#Comment_121879976

If you're not in it, I would like to join.

Bobson Dugnutt

I was a member of the Freemasons for a while I forgot to mention. There would have been a history of people who work in my industry having joined in the past, but that’s no longer the case. Joined anyway. Disappointing. No taking over the world or overthrowing the government. Mostly auld lads drinking tea and organising charity fundraisers.

Galway university I believe has a group of “influencers”’ who patrol social media, all in a WhatsApp group and act on behalf of a company. I wonder does Revenue know anything about this.

CaptainBradley

I swore I'd never post again on this site, but the message above it just too tempting.

The existence of the "NUIG Crew" is true. The rumour is it is a group of former students who knew some of the founders of this site. Which would make them late 30s or early 40s. Heard it was a fairly large group of posters who sort of drift in and out of trolling and winding people up on this site while also trying to influence discourse. . Also heard they work mostly in politics, media and marketing. They've had many different accounts and schticks here over the years. All some sort of injoke going on years.

That's definitely a clique if they are still operating. Met some posters who claimed to know some of them but I fell out of contact with those posters as well.

While I'm here, I was a member of the poker forum here. It was a proper clique. Ended up having a big falling out with the owners and admins of boards and creating our own site. The ass fell out of online poker around 2011 though and that withered away.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121889037#Comment_121889037

Very interesting. There’s an underground grapevine growing lots of juicy fruit. Things are getting particularly hot under the collar atm. There was a rereg the other night posting absolutely obnoxious personal abuse on another thread now duly deleted. When the raw bone starts to get exposed there is a proliferation of them. And a certain fav political party’s ship is foundering in the waves. We live in interesting times.

_Kaiser_

It wouldn't surprise me. Boards - even in its current state - is still probably the only real Irish discussion hub left outside of Reddit and Twitter.

I can easily see some discussions here being used as a barometer of opinion on various political, economic or social issues with kite flying or just attempts to direct or stifle certain topics being very obvious.

Given the increasing obsession with social media in general over the past 10/15 years it's no doubt an invaluable tool for some.

Field east

I do not see myself extreme in any direction. On a bell graph I would put myself not too far off either side of the middle. I often wonder who the typical boardie is. I find myself responding to the topics/comments raised rather than to individuals.

for one to comment on boards one needs

• an iPad or equivalent
• time
• interest in topics raised
• interest in inputting into the threads
• be aware of the site and how to access it
• 
  
• I have a number of friends /acquaintances , some of who are not aware of ‘boards’, who might be aware but have no interest, who are not very computer literate, etc, etc,

I often wonder who your typical boardie is. IMO I find that the site is used a lot :-

*by individuals with a ‘lot of time on their hands’

*by individuals/groups with an agenda/s ,eg political parties, special interest groups, hidden or otherwise

*by individuals who love to ‘get stuck into eachother’

• individuals interested in creating division, trolling !, gas lighting, creating narrative to get traction- genuine or otherwise

Of course your typical boardie might get involved in boards on the basis on one or a number of the above*

There are very few individuals (I count them on fingers of one hand and even then those fingers are counting multiple regs of the one person who is manipulating VPN) who would vex me on Boards to the point that I wouldn’t agree with them on some topics versus disagreeing on others. Hence for me it’s the topic in question I address. The handful of individuals I speak of are those who would have posted personally offensive stuff about me or others.

Bobson Dugnutt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121929662#Comment_121929662

Dude, boards.ie was last relevant to the “national conversation” about 15 years ago. Like it has some nostalgic appeal, but you ain’t going to find politicians, journalists and media figures hanging out here looking to gauge the mood of the people. Unless the mood of the people is represented by bad-tempered middle aged men who think the world has gone to hell and who create hundreds of deeply negative threads labouring the same point over and over again.

_Kaiser_

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121929782#Comment_121929782

I disagree. The demographic here has definitely gotten older with most posters probably now 30-50 and still here out of habit or because they don't fancy dealing with the even worse levels of nonsense on twitter, reddit etc.

But that age group is also the one that matters to the political parties so I'm sure that this site is used for research purposes alright.

Bobson Dugnutt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121929803#Comment_121929803

What sort of research?

Political gurus pouring over the posts of RogaineFailed from BallyGoBackwards to see what he has to say about “wokeness”, the plight of middle-aged white men, how modern music is crap, and how we need a new political party to represent the sort of inward looking conservation that died out around 1985?

Nah. It’s about as relevant as Father Ted memes and Facekicker nostalgia. Different era. Trust me.

FrancieBrady

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121929782#Comment_121929782

represented by bad-tempered middle aged men who think the world has gone to hell and who create hundreds of deeply negative threads labouring the same point over and over again.

That's exactly how I picture your good self Bobson.

Bobson Dugnutt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121929831#Comment_121929831

Less of the personals please, Francis. I know you spend 14-16 hours here per day, and are by far the most prolific poster on the site, but you don’t have to take everything so personally. Go out and meet a friend for coffee. SF will be fine. They might even better off without your online support tbh.

Lewis_Benson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058340159/are-you-a-member-of-any-online-cliques

Is that you Johnnyflash?

Clo-Clo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121929803#Comment_121929803

Boards as a barometer died a long time ago. No politician would use it as a guide to what the population think or what is going on in Ireland. The specailist forums are excellent but any of the politcial type forums are a joke. It is awash with fake accounts, multiple duplicate accounts, people using PM to tell others to go on thread to spew out their hate etc ect.

It was long gone but then when you read into the feedback forums and see people running 10+ accounts, creating pile on's etc against other if they didnt fall into the line of supporting the agenda they want, why would a politcian even consider boards as relevant?

even last night I posted on a politcial thread about an interesting discussion about one parties policies in another forum. What was the response? well it was to attack me and not make any reference to the actually discussion or the policies. That's the majority of politcial thread, attacked by people who are so scared that someone else has another opinion they have no other answer. Mention policies and try to have a discussion, no attack the poster.

How would anyone think that is relevant?

Oh it's not just boards either, most of reddit etc have the same group of online supporters, ruined every good discussion forum in Ireland. Twitter is just a f**king cesspool because of them as well.

Bobson Dugnutt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121929845#Comment_121929845

No. The great man is a few years dead at this stage. It was mentioned that he did an “Elvis” on it and died sitting on the porcelain throne. RIP

Clo-Clo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058340159/are-you-a-member-of-any-online-cliques

Wasn't it TIG and NRG back in the day from boads for online gaming?

FrancieBrady

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121929837#Comment_121929837

I know you spend 14-16 hours here per day

This shows you haven't really worked out how modern social media works. You are certainly hold the title of the most prolific bad tempered complainer about 'middle aged men'.

Norrie Rugger Head

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058340159/are-you-a-member-of-any-online-cliques

They're treating their game like a club. How's that neckbeard clique like?

Every club will have codes of conduct and not everyone will be allowed to play senior

nullzero

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121879837#Comment_121879837

The irony of a middle aged man (the OP) getting annoyed about other middle aged men being angry is mind blowing.

The OP is a self hating angry middle aged man it would seem.